The Jonathan Schell Reader: A Comparative Analysis

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The United States has a responsibility to balance our national security not independent of natural causes and our environment. A nation’s power and ecosystem ought to be stable, yet we should not lose sight of the stability of the world. In Jonathan Schell’s book called The Jonathan Schell Reader, the author argues hypothetically the negative fate of humanity as a result of the use of nuclear explosives on the infrastructures in the United States. However, in Elizabeth Kolbert’s book called Field Notes from a Catastrophe, she argues that global warming will have a profound impact on global infrastructures and livelihood. I argue that both authors provide their readers with a possible narration of the extinction of the earth due to the contribution …show more content…
For instance, if one desired to comprehend the depth a twenty-megaton missile explosion would leave on the ground, the pit would be “deep enough to bury a fair-sized skyscraper”(Schell, 2004, p.59). A nuclear explosive does not have a limit on the size that it can be created, the “…figures can be increased indefinitely, subject only to limitations imposed by the technical capacities of the bomb builder…”(Schell, 2004, p.62). The first atomic bomb that was released was on Hiroshima, which produced twelve and a half kilotons when detonated. In modern-day standards, this fission bomb is classified as a strategic weapon. (Schell, 2004, p.60) Similarly to the nature of nuclear weapons, the nature of global warming is also made by human activity. Global warming is generated as a result of an unbalanced quantity of greenhouse gases, yet what makes it a threat is as Perovich claims that once the unbalances of these gases commence “…we don't really know where it will stop”(Kolbert, 2006, p.34). The greenhouse gases consist of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and other gases that are favorable to our ecosystem when in a balance. These gases form a layer around the earth that protect the planet and help keep the planet warm. The layer these gases form around the earth is called the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is essential to life because the layer absorbs radiation and prevents the earth from freezing. (Kolbert, 2006,

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